University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--Political Science Political Science 2019 REPRESSION AND WOMEN’S DISSENT: GENDER AND PROTESTS Dakota Thomas University of Kentucky, [email protected] Author ORCID Identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1186-7470 Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2019.191 Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Thomas, Dakota, "REPRESSION AND WOMEN’S DISSENT: GENDER AND PROTESTS" (2019). Theses and Dissertations--Political Science. 27. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/polysci_etds/27 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Political Science at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--Political Science by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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Dakota Thomas, Student Dr. Emily Beaulieu, Major Professor Dr. Justin Wedeking, Director of Graduate Studies REPRESSION AND WOMEN’S DISSENT: GENDER AND PROTESTS DISSERTATION I A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Dakota Thomas Lexington, KY Co-Directors: Dr. Emily Beaulieu, Professor of Political Science and Dr. Tiffany Barnes, Professor of Political Science Lexington, KY 2019 Copyright © Dakota Thomas 2019 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1186-7470 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION REPRESSION AND WOMEN’S DISSENT: GENDER AND PROTESTS Why do women protest? Why do women protest “as women”? Why do some women participate in protests but not others? In the wake of the Women’s March of 2017, perhaps the largest single day protest event in history, these questions are particularly timely and deserve scholarly attention. One important but understudied and undertheorized motivation for women’s protests is state sanctioned violence, particularly repression. This dissertation explicitly theorizes about how state perpetration of violence, particularly state use of repression, both motivates and shapes women’s protests on a global scale. In this dissertation, I argue that one key motivation for women’s protest is repression by the state, and I theorize that women will protest more frequently when the state uses repression. Repression negatively impacts members of the population, particularly relatives, friends, and communities of those targeted by the state, and this motivates those people to protest. However, I argue that the type of repression, and more specifically how gendered the state practices repression, matters. The more that gender plays a role in determining who states target with repression, the more gender matters in the societal response to repression. In particular, I examine the use of forced disappearances. Based on historical and contemporary accounts, I show that forced disappearance largely targets males, and thus motivates women’s protests but has no effect on protests by other groups. When the state makes use of forced disappearances, some women are motivated to protest due to their connections to victims of repression. Furthermore, opportunities to protest in these circumstances are more available to women than to men, due to their relatively lower likelihood of being targeted, as well as women’s distinctive positions in society and their ability to organize themselves as women. Not only do women have additional space relative to men to protest when the state is repressive, but individual women recognize that their gender can serve as a resource in such contexts. Thus, individual women are more likely to participate in protests themselves when the state uses repression, closing the gender gap in protest participation between men and women. I test my theory of women’s protest using two unique approaches. First, utilizing unique new data on women’s protests that is globally comprehensive for all countries from 1990-2009, I show that women’s protests are more frequent when the state is repressive, and that forced disappearances in particular motivate women’s protests, specifically, but do not have an observable effect on general protests. Second, I utilize regionally comprehensive data on citizens in Latin America from 2006 and 2008 to show that women are more likely to participate in protests when the state uses forced disappearances, but that men are not more likely to participate in protests in repressive contexts. KEYWORDS: women’s protest, women’s mobilization, gender, human rights, repression, forced disappearances Dakota Thomas March 22nd, 2019 REPRESSION AND WOMEN’S DISSENT: GENDER AND PROTESTS By Dakota Thomas Emily Beaulieu Co-Director of Dissertation Tiffany Barnes Co-Director of Dissertation Justin Wedeking Director of Graduate Studies March 22nd, 2019 Date In loving memory of David, Whose love gave me a home. And for my grandfather, who taught me how to read. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are innumerable people who have helped me along this journey. The following is an incomplete list of those without whom this dissertation would not have been possible. I humbly thank all of them from the bottom of my heart. First, I must give thanks to my academic mentors and colleagues. Emily Beaulieu has served as my committee chair. She has taught me much by example about patience and diligence, provided immeasurable amounts of feedback on all my projects, kept watch over my progress, and came to my presentations at conferences to provide moral support and a kind face to look to in the crowd. Emily has also been a stellar mentor as I have steered through life’s many troubled waters. I could not have made it half so far in this program without her. For that, I offer her my deepest thanks. Tiffany Barnes, who graciously agreed to co-chair my committee, has also been an unswerving source of inspiration and guidance throughout my career. Tiffany taught me the value of sitting down to write every single day. Her feedback and guidance was critical in setting this project on the right path, and this dissertation would have been impossible without her. I owe her my sincerest gratitude for all she has done to help me these many years. I have also benefitted immensely from mentorship from Clayton Thyne, who served on my committee, provided invaluable feedback on my theoretical perspective, and taught me the basics of statistics. In addition, Claire Renzetti has given this project a fresh perspective and helped to expand the implications of my argument far beyond my limited vision. My deepest thanks to both of them. iii Indeed, I owe much of my success to the entire political science department of the University of Kentucky, who provided me with the opportunity to study a topic I care deeply about. In particular, I owe thanks to Jill Haglund, Abby Córdova, Jesse Johnson, and Justin Wedeking, all of whom have been critical to my development as a scholar. Additional thanks are owed to many of my past mentors. To name a few, I thank Eric Smith at my undergraduate alma mater, who believed in me, and sent me on the path to a PhD. I thank John Mark Adrian, whose guidance helped me feel at home in college. I also thank to Robert McGraw, whose copy of Thucydides’ “The Peloponnesian War” sent me down the path to studying politics. Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to my family and friends. To mom and dad, thank you for believing I could be more than I was, and for teaching me the value of pushing myself forward. To my sister, Krislyn, thanks for always being the goofball you are, for being far braver than I could ever be, and for the uncontrollable belly laughs you have given me over the years. To my grandma, thank you for always taking care of me no matter what, and for teaching me to never be afraid of who I am. To my colleague and dearest friend, Jaclyn Johnson, I could have never survived graduate school without you. To my best friend, Evan, thank you for putting up with me these last ten years and for making me stick to it, even when I didn’t want to. And finally, to David, who stood beside me when I could stand, and held me up when I could not, you have my love, my heart, and my deepest gratitude, forever.